Great British Sewing Bee

[terryk]

Hi all,
Just for information...
The next programme in the series features making a traditional kilt
Series 3 Episode 4 BBC 2 8pm-9pm Thursday 26th February
Regards
Terry

[Pleater]

Thanks for the warning - I keep getting information about such things, but so much that I tend to delete it en masse. There are downsides to one's speciality being known to electronic sources of information which must inconvenience any number of electrons. There is probably a message about it in the in box at the moment.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[uncle remus]

that episode might be interesting to watch. is there a way to see it in the US

[plaid preacher]

that episode might be interesting to watch. is there a way to see it in the US

Yes Uncle Remus, there is! There is a little programme called Hola |( available at Hola.org) that makes it appear as if you computer is somewhere it's not. In this case, choose the UK and go to the BBC website and you can watch the programme...not live ... but for for 7 days following broadcast.

It's a wonderful application that I use a lot.

[auld argonian]

Just when the Great British Bake Off show has got me hooked….now a kilt how-to? Bless the Beeb.

Best,

AA

[uncle remus]

great thanks plaid precher

[talondora]

Oh, I love that British Bake-Off program too! I watch it just before Downton Abby comes on. The recipes are wonderful!

[Pleater]

I think that the time was actually SIX and a half hours - and Neil sewed the pleats by hand - WOW.

I noticed that no one seemed to have pressed in their pleats to start with but tried to measure and pin and then sew before pressing.

I usually press in the pleats up to fell level to start with in order to get some order into the fabric, and it is then possible to check along the edge and see if there is a pleat larger or smaller than the others due to misalignment or an error in measuring.

There were also things such as the fabric being folded so a strong element was right on the edge of the pleat, rather than in the centre, but from the way that the kilts were tight at the hipline I suspect that tapering or shaping was not understood - those large darts put into the aprons of the women's kilts were just wrong. With the soft fabric used they could have just eased them onto the backing material, but some of the kilts didn't have that to work with in the first place.

It is interesting to see how even competent sewers don't understand the aspects of tailoring which go into a kilt, but it is perhaps not surprising then the basis is working with a wool fabric which is not very common these days. The lower ranked kilts might have been improved if the subtleties of the kilt were explained in the brief, or perhaps they should just have handed out copies of Barb T.'s book.

They certainly did well but I think there are bits of the dark arts involved in crafting a kilt.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Tarheel]

I think that the time was actually SIX and a half hours - and Neil sewed the pleats by hand - WOW.
They certainly did well but I think there are bits of the dark arts involved in crafting a kilt.

Every time you post tidbits of wisdom Anne, I feel more like the "Sorcerer's Apprentice."

[Pleater]

I do have a long history of making garments,over 55 years now so there are few types of garment I have not attempted and many techniques I have not only used successfully but elaborated or adapted to different ends. I also had the advantage of two grandmothers who had old fashioned knowledge handed down to them and who were available to me.
It does make a big difference to the result to have information passed down the generations.

Anne the Pleater. :ootd: